Duke’s Day To attract surfers of all ages to Freshwater Beach
Dukes Day, January 9, 2014: SURFERS from all walks of life and from the ages of eight to 80 will celebrate “Duke’s Day” at Freshwater Beach this Saturday – in honour of the father of surfing in Australia.
The great Hawaiian Olympian and surfer Duke Kahanamoku "popularised surfing at Freshwater" in 1915 and organisers are preparing for a major celebration in the build up to next year’s centenary.
The Duke’s original sugar pine surfboard remains on display in the Freshwater Surf Club’s heritage room and will be open for inspection.
This will be the fourth Duke's Day with water events all running for approx 45 minutes each and designed to be inclusive with some demonstration events, but for most events participation is encouraged for anyone.
The Paddle Challenge, over a 5 kilometre course, tracks across the area dedicated as a world surfing reserve just 18 months ago with 11-time world surfing champion Kelly Slater, a guest of honour.
The Duke’s Day was initially established as a fundraiser for environmental initiatives at the Freshwater Surf Club and the surrounding area, but with the driving forces led by Duke’s Day founder Naomi Donohue it has become much more important and much broader as a sustainability and surfing festival.
“We have great cooperation with the local marine protection groups, local board clubs, surfing equipment manufacturers and retailers, history and surf life saving,” said Duke’s Day founder Naomi Donohue.
“We are thrilled to have strong association with the local longboard and short board clubs as well as the surf life saving groups.
“There are also special interest groups from ocean-inspired artists to Kombi clubs joining in. It is quite a mix!”
The Duke's Day is set up so that as visitors arrive to Freshwater Beach on Saturday morning the reserve to the side of the surf club has a display of restored Kombis and historic surfboards.
Visitors can then move toward the beach and club entrance past the beach clean stalls, where they will be encouraged to help out by collecting a bucket of rubbish to 'pretty-it-up'.
The heritage room inside the Freshwater clubhouse, where the Duke's board is permanently displayed, is now also set up with other memorabilia from the Duke's various visits to Freshwater.
The front hall will have several environmental displays, including a tank of live marine life and artworks.
The balcony is busy as the ideal viewing platform for the water events on the beach.
So what's in store for Duke’s Day 2014...
Friday January 10: Aloha Cocktail Party (6pm): Friday night sees the return of the Aloha Cocktail Party; Hawaiian Tourism are arranging special hula dancers, The Shallows will play old-style surf tunes, and author Phil Jarratt will speak as part of the launch of his latest book. A relaxed and entertaining night on the lawn alongside the Heritage room.
Saturday January 11: Saturday is the main event with the Duke's Day dawn photo shoot, 7:30am beach clean and 8am Yoga for Surfers kicking off the day. The dawn photo shoot sees many brave souls lining up in the dark and has been growing every year (about 12 lined up for year 1 and over 35 last year) so come on down and bring your board.
The Duke’s Day expo will include the tanks of live marine wildlife, the beach clean tent, a container recycling station, interactive 'reclaimed' photo booth. Marine protection groups such as Ecodivers, TwoHands and Surfrider educate and inspire. We also have surfing books from Dymocks, Phil Jarrett's book launch and general Duke's Day merchandise for sale.
For the first time the Duke’s Day team will have "Shark in a Bus" which is setting up in the reserve today and will be in place all week. This is a heritage marine display that aims to educate and demystify sharks through its display of shark memorabilia. Alongside the Shark Bus in the reserve we will have the kombis and old boards on display, with some roving hula-hoopers and drummers. Feel free to come down and join in!
The water events start with the Duke's Paddle Challenge in the northern end at 9am; registrations and course set up all happen from 7.30am. The rest of the water events are set up to the south with the program including timeslots for girls-only, SUPs, longboarders and tandem surfers. In addition this year we have two teams of micro-grommets showing us what the u10s can do.
Duke's Day wraps up, back on the heritage grass, at about 2pm with a small wind down gathering and lucky prize draw... this is where the tall-tales of the day begin!
Media Inquiries:
Naomi Donohoe
Duke’s Day Founder
0401 338370